Monobenzylidene sorbitols ("MBS"), also known as monobenzylidene sorbitol acetals, have found utility as gelling agents in the past for coating compositions. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,108 to Okuda et al., teaches p-methylbenzylidene sorbitol and other monosubstituted compounds for gelling. Such compounds are produced through the reaction of sorbitol and a monosubstituted aromatic aldehyde. Other monobenzylidene sorbitols, unsubstituted, are taught within U.S. Pat. No. 4,267,110 to Uchiyama et al. Patentee, however, makes no mention of the potential gelling characteristics of such unsubstituted compounds. Although Okuda et al. teach the possible utilization of monosubstituted monobenzylidene sorbitols as gelling agents, there is no discussion of the potential use of these compounds as gelling agents within different types of solvents and for other potential uses other than coatings. Thus, there is a need, which has been unmet within the gelling composition field, to provide a simple method for forming a gel composition which can be utilized with various and different solvents, particularly with very low amounts of gelling agent. To date, it is believed that there are no teachings or fair suggestions of utilizing 2,4-O-(3,4-dimethylbenzylidene)-D-sorbitol in combination with a heated solvent, such as water, glycerine, mineral oil, or mixtures thereof, to provide an effective gelling composition. The relative cost of producing such gel compositions is quite low since the amount of potentially expensive monobenzylidene sorbitol is minimal, although the resultant gel composition performs extremely well.